Considering dominance in reduced single-step genomic evaluations.

Abstract

Single-step models including dominance can be an enormous computational task and can even be prohibitive for practical application. In this study, we try to answer the question whether a reduced single-step model is able to estimate breeding values of bulls and breeding values, dominance deviations and total genetic values of cows with acceptable quality. Genetic values and phenotypes were simulated (500 repetitions) for a small Fleckvieh pedigree consisting of 371 bulls (180 thereof genotyped) and 553 cows (40 thereof genotyped). This pedigree was virtually extended for 2,407 non-genotyped daughters. Genetic values were estimated with the single-step model and with different reduced single-step models. Including more relatives of genotyped cows in the reduced single-step model resulted in a better agreement of results with the single-step model. Accuracies of genetic values were largest with single-step and smallest with reduced single-step when only the cows genotyped were modelled. The results indicate that a reduced single-step model is suitable to estimate breeding values of bulls and breeding values, dominance deviations and total genetic values of cows with acceptable quality.